welcome!

i hope that this blog will be a blessing to you. That is my desire. In this crazy world, full of stress and chaos, i want to be a blessing.
There are many blogs that i read daily. Some focus more on adoption, some on homeschooling, some on handy tips. i hope to share a bit of everything.

Let me start by sharing a bit about what brought me to this blog.
To do that, we have to go back a few years...
1999 was the year we moved from the Northeast to the great state of Texas.
Our firstborn, Lady, was going into 3rd grade. She had 3 good years of a wonderful Christian school education under her belt, and was looking forward to more.
That first year in Texas, she had a wonderful teacher whom we are still friends with to this day. However, there were many things that i didn't like about that school. i didn't like having to drop her off on the first day without seeing her to her classroom. i didn't like not being able to help out in her class. It seemed to me a bit secretive and legalistic. For the most part, Lady was happy there, although she had a lot of homework. In the 4th grade, that all changed. Lady started having tummy troubles and headaches when she thought about school. Her after school routine was snack, homework, dinner, homework, violin practice, bed. It didn't seem much of a childhood to me. In late September, Lady caught a cold that turned into pneumonia. She missed a week of school. Everyday, the teacher sent home all her seat work and homework for her to catch up on. It was a ridiculous amount of busy-work. My husband and i took a long hard look at what our options were, prayed and decided to homeschool her. When we told Lady that she was going to be taught at home, she was overjoyed! My little homebody was going to be a home-school body! :)

Fast forward to today. Now Lady is grown up, and in college. She came through all of her years of homeschooling well, and even learned a bit! Since then we have adopted two more daughters; Bitty, who came home in 2002 at 10 months, and Baby, who came home in June 2010 at 4 1/2. Poor Lady was my first and therefore my "guinea pig". i have learned so much since those early days of teaching at home. It took me until Lady was a Senior in high school to discover that she likes workbooks best. Sigh.
i am hoping that my mistakes will help you all on your journeys.

In homeschooling, i use a rather eclectic style; a lot of Charlotte Mason, some classical, and unit studies too. i try to do some of each learning style during the day, so that the kinestetic, auditory and visual learning can take place.

My hope for this blog is that in encouraging you, and giving you tips and ideas, i can glean from you also.

Enjoy the journey!

Alycia